51% Show #1205

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Here is this week's information on 51% #1205.

(SHOW THEME)

BILLBOARD – Susan Barnett (Music Out)

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There’s been an online furor – a 14 year old girl took on a major teen fashion magazine – and won. Julia Bluhm, a student in Maine who got tired of hearing the girls in her ballet class complain about their bodies, started a petition on Change.org demanding that Seventeen magazine feature photos of models without photoshopping them. She struck a nerve. Her effort to counteract the epidemic of negative body image among today’s young women got widespread support. To her surprise, Seventeen agreed. And Editor Ann Shoket featured a Body Peace Treaty in her own message to the magazine’s readers. Attention then turned to Teen Vogue, where teenage girls picketed in July. But a meeting with Teen Vogue’s editor, Amy Astley didn’t go as well. She told the two girls who started the petition asking Teen Vogue to follow Seventeen’s lead that her magazine only features healthy models and doesn’t retouch photos of non-models and “real girls.”

Jean Kilbourne, the mother of the movement to hold advertisers and media accountable for their portrayal of women, sees the issue as a real victory for young women.

8:34 Kilbourne Seventeen Barnett

Jean Kilbourne is a lecturer, author and educator, and perhaps best known for her groundbreaking documentary, Killing Us Softly – Advertising’s Image of Women.

Up next, a quiet but undeniable shift in a growing segment of America, and how companies are trying to keep ahead of it. Plus an intimate chat with a working woman. If you missed part of this show or want to hear it again, visit the 51% archives at wamc.org. This week’s show is #1205.

(10:55)

Former President Bill Clinton has probably done more to revise America’s opinion of a meatless diet than anyone else. He’s shifted the conversation away from ethics and focused on the health benefits. It’s still not widespread in the US – it’s estimated that only about 2 or 3 percent of Americans are vegetarians. But ten percent of the population says they only eat meat rarely. And more than forty percent of Americans aged eighteen to twenty-nine choose to skip meat at least once a week. That's the market the food industry is going for with new vegetarian products that mimic the flavor… and the texture… of meat. Harvest Public Media’s Jeremy Bernfeld has the story.

Finally, Studs Terkel made a career out of talking to working Americans and sharing their stories. It’s a tradition that continues and seems essential as we all continue to work our way thru an economic recession.

In Lewiston Maine, Veronica McNally works at Pantheon Guitars. She’s worked with wood her entire life, but this isn’t your usual conversation with someone passionate about her craft. For McNally, this is just a job – a good job, but just a job.

That’s our show for this week. Thanks to Katie Britton for production assistance. Our theme music is by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock.

If you’d like to hear this show again, or visit the 51% archives, go to our website at WAMC.org. You can also find a regular column related to 51% at feminist.com. Thanks so much for joining us…we’ll be back next week with another edition of 51% The Women's Perspective.